


Green Light

by padsandmoons



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:54:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29234874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padsandmoons/pseuds/padsandmoons
Summary: James and Lily's last day
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Green Light

Oct 31st, 1981

Lily woke up feeling uneasy. She often did, these days. The war had certainly taken its toll on them, too many innocent lives had been taken. Strangers and friends, she ached for them equally. Shaking her head to clear the thoughts, she got up and begun to prepare breakfast. On the bad days, the days where she felt restless, she knew it was important to be as productive as possible, to keep herself from going crazy cooped up in their house. Pushing down the toast, she thought she heard movement upstairs, so she went to go and check on Harry. He was lying in his cot, awake and peacefully watching the mobile above him. The miniature quidditch players zoomed around above him. She smiled watching it, James had gotten it as soon as they found out they were pregnant. Trust him to ensure their baby was as quidditch obsessed as he was. Harry reached his arms up, asking to be picked up and Lily obliged. She held him and carried him gently downstairs, and finished preparing breakfast for all of them. 

James walked down then, his hair still wet from the shower. He came over and wrapped his arms around his wife, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.  
“Morning beautiful,” he said. “Something smells good, what have you made?”  
“It’s just eggs and toast,” she laughed, “yours is at the table.”  
He called a thank you and dug in. Lily went to shower and get dressed for the day, James would be okay to watch Harry for the time being. Half an hour later, she came downstairs feeling much better. Taking a seat on the sofa next to James, she leant on his shoulder and they watched Harry play.  
“James,” she began, not sure exactly what she wanted to say.  
“What if we don’t survive the war?” her voice broke, and she was staring at a point on the carpet that had suddenly become quite interesting. She had thought about this all the time, and her and James had discussed the effects of the war on everyone around them but up until this point had not had a serious conversation about what would happen if they didn’t make it. They knew Voldemort was notorious for killing families, and with the prophecy about Harry she couldn’t help but worry herself about it all. Seeing the paper with the news about Marlene’s family in July, and the following Order meeting had been sickening. As well as the numerous other attacks she had sat through meeting after meeting about. James’s voice startled her out of her thoughts, and he was looking at her with a solemn expression.  
“Lily, I know that absolutely nothing is guaranteed in this war, but you have to have hope. It’s just about all we have left. No one on this planet knows where we are except for Peter, and the Death Eaters will never expect us to have him as our Secret Keeper. He isn’t going to break our trust, so they have no hope of finding us unless they find out that it’s him and kill him. And you know that I will do absolutely anything in my power to keep you and Harry safe, _anything_. I don’t want to say it, but in the extremely unlikely event that something happens to both of us, Sirius and Remus will take care of Harry, you know they will. Legally Sirius is his godfather so Harry will go to him and he will be just fine, even if Remus has to help out. Lils I promise you that I will do whatever I can to make sure you are safe. I love you.”  
Lily had begun sobbing around the point he had started talking about Peter, and allowed herself to freely cry. It felt like lately they had tried to keep themselves so numb because dealing with every single attack and death was becoming too much. She rarely cries anymore, but let herself have this. Lying on James’s lap, he stroked her hair and was rubbing comforting circles on her shoulder. Eventually she cracked a smile as Harry had crawled up to the sofa and had stood up to lean on the edge next to Lily’s face. He blew her a kiss and despite herself she laughed. She lifted herself up, then lifted Harry into the space between her and James.  
“My boy, my sweet baby boy,” she whispered to him, pressing kisses all over his face. James then began to tickle him and they were all screaming and laughing. Lily thought this was as close to genuine happiness as she had felt in months, watching the love of her life smiling and laughing with their baby, and watching Harry’s tummy shake with giggles was a new kind of joy. They spent the day as a family, baking and playing with Harry, and Lily’s unease from the morning had settled. They watched a movie together, as since they had been placed under the Fidelius Charm Lily had insisted they bring in some Muggle entertainment.

It was getting dark, and Lily suggested she go and put Harry to bed. James agreed and kissed them both on the cheek.  
“Goodnight Harry, sweet dreams about the Cannons losing the game next week so we can go through to the semi-finals!”  
Lily, although she rolled her eyes, smiled at her Quidditch obsessed husband.  
“Love you babe, I’ll come back down once I’ve put Harry to bed.”  
James nodded his assent, and turned to go and clean up the kitchen from dinner. He knew he had left his wand upstairs earlier but he didn’t mind the washing up the muggle way, the repetitive motions were quite therapeutic. Not two minutes after Lily had gone upstairs with Harry, there was a banging on the front door. All of the colour drained from James’s face, and he felt his stomach drop.  
“Lily,” he called. “There’s someone here.”  
He tried to keep the terror out of his voice although he was not very successful. He knew that if Peter were coming by he would have done their code knock so they knew it was him. The front door swung open, and he immediately regretted leaving his wand upstairs. He cautiously stepped into the front room to see who was there. Unsure of what he was expecting, he was still shocked when he came face to face with Voldemort himself. Wanting to buy as much time as possible, he grabbed a chair from the dining room table next to him, taking a moment to be grateful for the open plan of their house, then realising how bad the situation was he stepped forward, as if to hit Voldemort with the chair. Voldemort deflected this easily and with a flick of his wand the chair had gone flying across the room and smashed a window.  
“Now now,” Voldemort said, with an air of calm that definitely did not match James’s current heart rate, “if you just give me Harry we can all move on and I won’t have to kill you.”  
“Never!” James roared, charging at Voldemort and trying to hit and punch him as much as possible.  
“LILY, TAKE HARRY AND GO! IT’S HIM! GO! RUN! I’LL HOLD HIM OFF!” he screamed, trying to convey the urgency of the situation.  
_Hang on_ , he thought briefly, _there is no way that Voldemort could be here unless Peter told him where we were, no way that’s not_ \- “Avada Kedavra.” Voldemort said simply, and then the green light hit him.  
James’s body fell to the ground, lifeless.

Upstairs, Lily had been trying to open the window without Voldemort hearing so they could escape and have a head start without him knowing, but upon hearing the spell and the thud to the ground, she knew exactly what had happened. She knew she had to keep trying to get out and take Harry away but it was too late, footsteps were coming and they were in the hallway just outside Harry’s room.  
“Harry my boy, my sweet boy, I love you so much, I’m going to try and get us out of here, okay?” she whispered, more to calm herself down than anything. She had also had the same thought as James, that there’s no way Voldemort could be here unless Peter had betrayed them and was still having trouble believing that poor, meek Peter would do that to them. Not to mention that her husband was currently lying dead on the living room floor. Voldemort walked in, wand at the ready and disarmed Lily wordlessly before she could react.  
“Step aside my dear, I can spare your life if only you’ll give me Harry,” he said, and she would almost think of his tone as pleasant and charming if not for the request he was making and the lack of humanity in his eyes.  
“No,” she replied furiously, refusing to ever put her baby in danger. He aimed behind her at Harry and uttered the spell. As if in slow motion, she leapt in front of the awful green light. It hit her chest and her whole world went blank, and then there was nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm so sorry :( it hurt me to write this too. also it was so weird to write dialogue for Voldemort it felt wrong


End file.
